3rd GURJEET SINGH MEMORIAL NATIONAL MOOT COURT

COMPETITION, 2022 (VIRTUAL)

MOOT PROPOSITION

BRIEF FACTS

1. Ramta Jogi and Ali Baksh are two young engineers who graduated from the
University of Bostono, United Kingdom of Azerica (“UKA”). Ramta and Ali
were one of the brightest students in their respective schools. They had been
awarded the highest scholarship namely - Roses which the Government of Indri
(“GoI”) offers to the best minds of the country. They had moved together to
UKA to pursue their graduation in Computer Science from University of
Bostono. After graduation, Ramta bagged a job in Ameron (an ecommerce
multi-national corporation) whereas, Ali got placed in Flirtbook (a social
networking platform). Both these corporates were ranked as the highest revenue
generating entities in their respective business verticals.

2. Surprisingly, both Ramta and Ali left their jobs and came back to India. In India,
both of them started living together in a small chawl located in the city of
Faizabad, Ughra Pradesh. They never interacted with any of the neighbours living
in the vicinity. This behaviour of Ramta and Ali made the neighbours suspicious.

3. On 20.02.2022 at around 11:00 P.M., a 15-year-old boy living in the vicinity,

witnessed a truck park outside the premises where Ramta and Ali lived. As this
boy was about to leave, he saw Ramta and Ali loading huge trunks in the truck.
Accidentally, the lock of one of the trunks, broke open and big machine guns fell
from it. The boy got anxious and quietly left the scene. Upon reaching his home,
he confronted his father of what he saw concerning Ramta and Ali. The father
of the boy namely Toofan Singh was an ex-cop with the police of Ughra Pradesh.
Toofan Singh who personally knew the town inspector of Faizabad, immediately
informed him about what his son had just witnessed. Within minutes, a huge
battery of police surrounded the premises of Ramta and Ali. Seeing this, Ramta
and Ali attempted to flee from there, however, they could not escape from the
clutches of the cops deployed there.

4. Upon thorough search of the premises occupied by Ramta and Ali, the police
found a secret basement like structure beneath the said premises. The basement
was filled with tons of arms and ammunition along with huge liquid cash. All the

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 materials including the liquid cash was seized by the police and sent for forensic
examination. Subsequently, a team of forensic experts was also called to
thoroughly examine the scene of crime.

5. Further investigation by the police revealed that both Ramta and Ali had links
with left wing and right-wing extremist groups and for the past 5 years were
supplying illegal weapons to these groups to carry out unlawful activities within
the territory of India.

FIR REGISTERED AGAINST RAMTA JOGI AND ALI BAKSH

6. Accordingly, a First Information Report (“FIR”) under Sections 13, 16, 17, 18,
21 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (“UAPA”); Section 25 of
the Arms Act, 1959 read with Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860
(“IPC”) was registered against Ramta and Ali.

7. Next day, Ramta and Ali were produced before the jurisdictional magistrate and
considering the gravity of charges levelled against them, they were remanded to
15 days of police custody.

8. With huge chunk of liquid cash found from the premises of Ramta and Ali, the
local police started scrutinizing the bank accounts held by them. The police found
that Ramta and Ali had been receiving crores of rupees from various shell entities.
It was also found that both held crores of crypto currency.

9. The seized phone and laptop of Ramta and Ali revealed that they had been
operating their business of illegal trade of weapons through the platform of Dark
Web.

10. The police during the interrogation of Ramta and Ali, confronted these
incriminating evidences against them. However, no concrete explanation was
given by them. The local police shared the financials of Ramta and Ali with the
Directorate of Enforcement (“ED”), considering the angle of money laundering
involved in the case.

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ECIR REGISTERED AGAINST RAMTA JOGI AND ALI BAKSH

11. ED being one of the most sophisticated investigating agencies, particularly when
it comes to cases involving financial frauds, after its preliminary inquiry registered
an Enforcement Case Information Report (“ECIR”) under Sections 3 and 4 of
the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (“PMLA”) against Ramta Jogi
and Ali Baksh.

12. On the very next day, Ramta Jogi and Ali Baksh were slapped with a notice under
Section 50 of the PMLA issued by ED, directing them to appear before the ED
and testify. ED sought issuance of production warrants by the Special Court
trying the case of Ramta Jogi and Ali Baksh and for their custody. The Special
Court granted 6 days custody of Ramta Jogi and Ali Baksh. This was extended
by another spell of 9 days. During interrogation, Ramta Jogi and Ali Baksh were
subjected various incriminating evidences in their nature of irregular bank
account statements, fraudulent entries, etc. After 15 days of gruelling
interrogation, Ramta Jogi and Ali Baksh returned to the judicial custody.

MEDIA ATTENTION

13. Lot of media attention was gathered by this case, considering the background
story of two boys who made it big but now were languishing in jail for the past
several months. The media frenzy followed whenever Ramta and Ali were
produced before the court for extension of their judicial custody.

BAIL APPLICATIONS FILED BY RAMTA AND ALI

14. Ramta and Ali separately applied for grant of bail in qua the FIR registered by the
police of Faizabad and the ECIR registered by ED.

15. However, the two Special Courts constituted under the provisions of UAPA and
PMLA rejected the Bail Applications filed Ramta and Ali citing the special twin
conditions provided under the said statutes.

16. Ramta and Ali challenged the orders of the two Special Courts before the
jurisdictional High Court i.e., High Court of Judicature at Illhadbad. Ramta and
Ali had also sought for interim bail till the high court finally decides the fate of

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 Ramta and Ali. However, no interim relief as sought by Ramta and Ali was
granted by the Court.

17. The hearing before the High Court lasted for an entire month. One of country’s
finest lawyer, Mr. Nakul Chohatgi represented Ramta and Ali. He argued nuances
of the bail jurisprudence to seek bail for his clients. However, the High Court
similar to the decision of Special Court(s), citing the twin conditions under the
provisions of PMLA and UAPA rejected the bail applications filed Ramta and
Ali.

18. It has been 80 days since Ramta and Ali have been languishing in jail and they
are yet to be liberated from the confines of prison. This is nothing short of pre-
trial conviction. Ramta and Ali are convinced that until the special twin
conditions are existent on the statute book, they cannot get out of the prison.

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CONSTITUTIONALITY AND VIRES OF THE PROVISIONS OF THE PMLA AND
UAPA CHALLENGED BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT

After round of legal advisory sessions, Ramta and Ali decided to file a Writ Petition
under Article 32 of the Constitution of Indra before the Supreme Court of Indra,
challenging the vires of various provisions of the PMLA and UAPA which includes:
a. Special twin conditions as provided under the provisions of PMLA and
UAPA insofar as the grant of bail is concerned.
b. Section 50 of the PMLA as it violates the very basic tenets of the provisions
of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
c. Reverse burden of proof on the accused under the provisions of the UAPA.

Apart from this, the Supreme Court has also directed the counsel of the Petitioner
to address the court on the maintainability of the Writ Petition.
The Supreme Court is about to begin hearing arguments in the aforesaid Writ
Petition filed by Ramta Jogi and Ali Baksh.

NOTE
Laws and the Constitution of Indri are pari materia to the laws and Constitution of
India.
The Supreme Court of Indri considers the precedents of the Supreme Court of India
as binding.
Participants may frame any other issue(s) and/or sub issue(s) in addition to the one's
listed above.

*This Proposition has been drafted by Lavkesh Bhambani and Tushar Behl,
Associates at L&L Partners. Any attempt to contact the authors of the proposition
will lead to immediate disqualification.

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